RPGs I Like: The GUMSHOE System

RPG Items I Like: The GUMSHOE System

I have a love/hate relationship with the Gumshoe system. What I love about it I love deeply, and the flaws in it can be overcome with some minor tinkering on my part.

Gumshoe is an engine for investigative games. So far Pelgrane has published four flavors of the system-- Esoterrorists (a modern supernatural conspiracy game), Fear Itself (a more classic horror game), Mutant City Blues (police procedural in a world of superbeings) and Trail of Cthulhu (a Cthulhu game, as you might guess). The engine is easily adapted to other settings. I've run MCB and a homebrew version trying to simulate spy movies). I've also played in a Victorian England take on the game. I can imagine it being adapted to anything from Roman Mysteries (like the Didius Falco novels), to more science-fiction-y treatments (maybe something like Flash Forward) to fantasy (perhaps something like the Lord Darcy stories from Randall Garrett).

Gumshoe begins with a couple of key premises. First, to quote the book:

Investigative scenarios are not about finding clues-- they're about interpreting the clues you do find.

That may seem like a pretty simple idea, but it has pretty broad-ranging implications for this game, and actually for games in general. We come to the classic problem in a dice/challenge based game. A player searches a scene for a clue, a necessary one to move forward. They botch their roll. Suddenly forward motion in the story halts. You can have the player roll again, but then you're just rolling until they get it. Or perhaps you have more players roll, which is just another path to that. Or maybe you have to have a deus ex machina appear and hand them the clue. Or perhaps you just cheat the system as written and hand it off to them.

The basic problem is that you have to jump through these hoops. Laws has a great analogy for this. Imagine a dungeon crawl where you had to make a roll to get to the next room. If you fail you can't go any further until some system jerry-rigging gets done. An investigation is a series of rooms, which in this case are scenes and locations.

Gumshoe gets around this by having two sets of skills (called abilities, but I always call these kinds of things skills): Investigative and General. I'll come back to the latter in a bit, but the former is what makes the game work. In character creation, the players have a pool of points to put into Investigative skills and the rules encourage the party to discuss so that the group has at least one person with a point for each skill.

And one point is really what you need, the rest is gravy.

Basically when a group comes to a scene- if they ask to use a particular ability at that scene and it is relevant, the GM tells them something. No rolls-- they're assumed to have basic competency in that field. The goal for the GM is to provide to the players what are called core clues-- essentially the keys to move on to the next scene or place. There may be several core clues, meaning that the investigation may move in different directions based on player choice.

To get those clues, a player need only describe applying the skill to the scene. Having a score of “1” means you know what you're doing. However players with higher scores may additional spend points from that skill in order to gain more information. These points refresh from session to session. The rules suggest that early on the GM suggest when players can spend those points, but later allow the PCs to make those choices on their own.

Clues/additional information gained from this use can be used to give more depth to elements, give an edge for later investigation, or provide other intangible benefits (like impressing someone). The rules suggest that these clues should never be necessary to solving the question or moving the scene forward.

All fine and good and you can certainly find this summary in various other versions in any review of the system on the net. The real question is: how does it actually play?

Very well. It takes players a scene of two to get the rhythm of the system, but once they get it, they find it liberating. They enjoy finding the core clues and they enjoy hunting around for opportunities to deepen their understanding by spending points to draw out more information. In short, the key concept of Gumshoe works, and quite frankly I can't imagine going back to anything else for running a straight investigative game. As well, seeing this kind of structure and having a sense of what core clues are has informed my other games, those not entirely focused on investigation, but having that as a recurring trope (Changeling or my H. Potter influenced Steampunk game).

The basic idea is that a system can find a way around these kinds of potential stumbling block moments in a game. They can be built into the system rather than having to resort to mechanical gymnastics to get the players moving forward. I like that idea-- and I think it is worth applying in a general way. If you find yourself consistently contorting something in the rules or in play, shouldn't you examine it to see how it can be done better?

I have only two small problems with this part of the game rules, and those are minor. First my general preference is to reduce the number of variable resources a player has to keep track off on their sheet. For things like Hit Points, Wounds, Willpower, Karma, etc-- I usually don't want more than three of these items. That's, however, really an aesthetic judgment on my part-- because in play it doesn't seem to cause problems.

The second problem is more about the nature of an investigative scenario-- regardless of whether you use Gumshoe or not. They're much harder to come up with and run on the fly. Gumshoe provides tools for helping you structure those stories and advice on how to construct clues and scene flow. But the bottom line is, these kinds of game require more prep than others. Of course this is coming from someone who plays fairly rules light and doesn't have write ups or stat blocks for the bad guys usually. If you're comfortable with that kind of prep, then this shouldn't be an obstacle. But again, that's the nature of a mystery-based game, and certainly when well-done the pay-off in play can be enormous.

OK, so what don't I like about Gumshoe.

Basically I dislike the way it handles all of the other skills, called General Abilities. These are skills used in circumstance where there's risk and challenge. Tests on these skills should only happen in dramatic situations, where the outcome is in doubt or opposed. So General Abilities include things like Athletics, Scuffling, Preparedness, and Shooting.

For any particular task, the GM sets a difficulty (from 2-8). The player rolls a single d6, and if the roll is equal to or higher than the difficulty, they succeed. The rating a character has with a General Ability is considered to be a pool. Before a roll on a particular skill, the player may opt to spend points from their pool on that roll and add that value to the total. If the declaration is not made beforehand, no bonus can be added.

In play our groups disliked this system immensely. They felt the die range ended up being too narrow and the mechanic of spending from a pool of points felt “gamey” to them. This was consistent across the three games (two one-shots in different settings, and one twelve episode campaign). Your experience with this system may well vary-- if your group is more used to these kinds of mechanics they may find no problem with it. Our group- made up of players who know Storyteller, Unisystem, our homebrew card resolution system, and True20- found it got in the way of everything else they enjoyed about the system.

I don't think that's a deal-breaker at all for me. The General Abilities rules and the Investigative Abilities rules exist in two different universes. It would be no problem to rip out the former and replace it with a mechanic from a system your players are more comfortable with. I'd avoid something heavy (like full-on nWoD), but other resolution systems where players know they have a skill and can see a concrete value to it could work better.

Overall I think Gumshoe has to be one of my favorite gaming products of the last several years. It has helped me see some of the systems of stories in a new way and given me a toolbox for playing out investigations in a satisfying way. I'd recommend any GM thinking about running mystery games pick up one of the Gumshoe books for a read through.

I'd also point people who want a deeper read on Gumshoe's ideas to look at this recent interview with Robin Laws.

RPG Supplements I Like: Strangers in Prax

RPG Items I Like: Strangers in Prax

I have to admit I'm not a big fan of modules-- at least the smaller ones that don't provide a good deal of context. I've run a few more often than not I end up jerry-rigging more things than the material provides. I'm a bigger fan of sourcebooks-- hooks, culture, NPCs, background and general ideas I can filter out for my players. I want material I can integrate and use to enrich the experience for my players. (With an exception-- if I'm buying materials for a superhero game, I don't care about that-- I don't even really want that. I want adventures, adversaries and new mechanics. Superhero rpgs are a kind of anti-matter in my thinking about games).

But with that said, one of my all time favorite rpgs products is essentially a module, Strangers in Prax for Runequest 3e. Long out of print, Avalon Hill released it during their brief period of trying to actually put out quality Glorantha material, not long before they shut down their role-playing arm.

Strangers in Prax takes place in the River of Cradles, the Valley of Prax (complimented by a number of other regional sourcebooks and material for the area). If you want an analogue, imagine a distant border province, overseen by a foreign empire. The key to the area lies in the presence of the city of Pavis and “The Big Rubble” a great ancient city, long destroyed now serving as a beacon for adventures to match their wits against the new monsters and old traps which fill it. It is a classic, early setting first mentioned and developed in the late 1970's.

Of course, all of this takes place in Glorantha. If you like fantasy and don't know Glorantha, it is worth looking into. Originally created by Greg Stafford and enriched over the years by many other authors, Glorantha takes seriously the question of what a fantasy world would look like if the gods were active, present and a vital part of the daily lives of the inhabitants. I'll admit the setting is hard to get into given the complexity of it, but it is worth it, if only to provide new perspectives on other fantasy games.

Which brings me back around to Strangers in Prax, which I ought to be fairly meh about-- but what drives this set of scenarios (broken into three parts) to greatness is the characters. Imagine that for all of the adventurers and outside occupation, the region of Prax is fairly isolated and hidebound. Each scenario centers around a foreigner (or group of foreigners) and the plots and event which occur when they arrive in Prax. If the PCs themselves are outsiders, this gives them a chance to build sympathy-- if the characters are locals you can use these characters to showcase the strangeness of the outside world.

And bottom line, all of the NPCs presented here are fun-- wonderfully interesting, with conflicting motivations and strong personalities.

The shortest section of the three is given over to Barran the Monster Killer-- a sea captain who has come to the region to work through his great quest. There's interesting material here on the idea of people who live to fight sea monsters and leviathans. The book describes Barran and his crew and provides a rising series of plot hooks, pursuing small monsters, searching out legendary equipment, and meeting with figures out of myth. The players can get drawn along on his journey, never feeling like second fiddles given the richness of it. Alternately, a more eco-friendly group might find themselves at odds with the ambiguous nature of Barran's quest. The payoff final scenario is properly epic and legendary.

Arlaten the Magus drives the action of another section. In simple terms he arrives in Pavis, a representative of strange magics from a far-off land. He decides to set up his shop in the middle of the Big Rubble-- possibly involving the adventurers in the clearing of his choice location. Arlaten serves as a great potential patron for characters in the setting. It has opportunities for misunderstandings and learning about the ways of a land far enough away to be almost a myth. The strength of that character (and his entourage) makes up for the fact that you only get two detailed scenarios in that section: one which assumes the players aid in the taking the tower Arlaten wants and another which involves defending that tower later from powerful forces who wish to drive him out. I'd imagined there was more material in there, given how much spun out of that when I ran a campaign which used this. In going back I see that most of what I used grew out of the possibilities inherent in the set up.

The third section deals with agents of the occupying force, the Lunar Empire. Powerful figures called the Lunar Coders have been sent to survey the area and deal with a few problematic rebels. The Coders provide an opportunity to present interesting NPCs who really believe in the mission and role of their Empire. In Gloranthan materials, the Lunar Empire often fills the role of “The Evil Empire” but that status is questionable. The nature and personality of the Coders themselves puts that question to the players.

The Coder section gives the most opportunity for the players to play for or against the NPCs presented. In some ways, the Coders seem like a classic adventuring party-- with internal drama, very different backgrounds, and strange abilities rarely seen elsewhere. They can serve as a dark or a bright mirror for the PCs. As the Coders get tangled deeper in the politics of the area, the players may find themselves trying to understand those politics more deeply.

While the material here seems at first glance pretty deeply entrenched in the Glorantha setting, I think it could easily be adapted and repurposed elsewhere. John Bykowski borrowed my copy after the campaign and used it for a chunk of his Planescape game. Strangers in Prax, simply put, provides rich NPCs and then builds great plots around them-- whether the players stand with or against those NPCs doesn't matter as much. That gives great freedom to the players and to the GM.

The last thing I should note: While there are some pretty mechanics-heavy write ups for the NPCs (and if you've seen RQ3 you know what I mean) I think the material is easily reworked for other systems. When I ran these adventures, I used Rolemaster and switched things over on the fly. John adapted the ideas to d20 without too much problem for his campaign. I think it would be even easier with lighter mechanics systems.

Things I Think About Games (After Hindmarch and Tidball) Part Two

The second half of my list of things. Tomorrow I begin some reviews of rpg products I'm particularly fond of.

Things I Think About Games (After Hindmarch and Tidball) Part Two

Big Finishes Can Save a Game
If I'm watching a movie that's slow and lame and bores me, but the ending knocks it out of the park-- that is the part I'm going to remember. The opposite holds true, if a movie's great and then the ending is a let down. The same thing holds for campaigns, one-shots, arcs and sometimes sessions. No pressure there, I'm just saying.

Something Every Week
Something should happen every session. After a session, I should be able to point at something interesting that occurred. If there was a fight, something interesting should have happened in that fight. I ought to be able to tell a relatively non-boring story about the session. If not, then we're not doing something right.

Never Say There's Nothing for Me to Buy
Really-- there's nothing your character wants to buy? You've hit the nadir of your abilities? Why don't I put that to the test then. If you want me to bring my GM whipping stick out and not in a good, “I get time at the table” but more in a “my character's out for how many sessions?” way, tell me this.

Know Who's Playing
At any particular moment, you should know who is talking to the GM or interacting in character with another player. If you're not aware of that then there's a pretty good chance you're talking over someone or interrupting a scene. People zone out, and that's OK, but not when you stomp on other people's enjoyment.

Poo Flies Both Directions
Trash-talking and poking fun at other players is a part of the game. However if you go down that path, you'd better be prepared to get some of that splattered on you. In other words, don't dish it out if you can't take it. Obviously there's a question of tone and level to be considered here-- make sure you keep things on the same level or in the same spirit as the other person.

It is Small Table
You've got a lot of people usually around a table, plus the various books, papers, food, drinks, dice, miniatures and so on. Be respectful of other people's stuff and don't crowd them out. Imagine you're at a nice dinner and keep those manners. If someone ends up looking at your character sheet or stuff by accident, don't get shitty. Most of the time that's an accident.

Yes, People Can Read Your Body-Language
If you're irritated, if you aren't enjoying yourself, if you're just a f*ckwit- people will know it. They can see you cross your arms, can see you pull your stuff back close to you and get defensive, and see you shut down. Don't act innocent if people ask about it later. You're in a small area with these people for several hours-- gamers are notoriously oblivious, but they'll pick up on that. Try to relax and get through the moment of what's bothering you. Get up and stretch if you need to-- and address your problem after the game. If it is just that you're in a bad mood, say so at the table and apologize. Being in a bad mood, on the other hand, doesn't give you license to make other people miserable.

No Plan Ever Survives Contact with the Player Characters
Get used to it.

Change
Some people imagine themselves as iconic heroes, untouched and untouchable by the world. These are usually uninteresting characters. Characters who can't evolve or can only evolve along predetermined lines imagined by the player at the start-- those are boring characters. Be reactive to experiences and see how the unexpected shapes you.

Compromise does not Automatically = Failure
Other versions of the iconic characters mentioned above have to have things their way. They can't compromise their codes and rules. In some cases, that's a good challenge- a brings about questions about those codes in themselves and others. But more often than not, we get Rorschach like characters. Characters who can't adjust and work with a group shouldn't be made up to be played with a group. A game is a back and forth of argument, compromise, solution and progression.

Interparty Fighting Sucks
There are some games that encourage this-- Paranoia as the best example. But there are some others- an Amber RPG Throne War or Wilderness of Mirrors. However the bottom line is that these experiences will come over to haunt you. They'll color other games, irritate people, and provide fodder for later payback which can destroy another game. There are exceptions- like one shots. But generally be prepared that even a game that's declared to have that purpose and be isolated has a pretty good chance of coming back to bite you in the ass. And for a normal game where you let this happen, especially late in the game, it can be bad. You may have to suspend disbelief to keep people from going after each other, but you're already operating in a fantasy world-- so what's the problem there.

You Don't Own NPCs
Other people can talk to them too...don't get upset about it.

Tick, Tick, Tick...
Understand that when you start talking about WoW, a timer starts in my head. You've got about thirty-minutes (plus or minus ten) before I want to move on to another topic. I think that's pretty generous.

The Future is Now
Computers at the game table were a great idea when we thought about that twenty years ago. Today, not so much. Bonus: yes, it is a little rude when you're playing away with your iPhone constantly when other people are taking their scene.

Don't Threaten to Burn My House Down if My House Has Burned Down in the Past
If you'd played with people long enough odds are pretty good you know what irritates them. That's part of the art of banter at the table. But you also probably know what really pisses them off. Know the difference and don't use that in the game.

If You Have Four Magic Swords, and I Have None and I Ask to Borrow One Before the Big Fight...
...lend one to me.

...please?

Count to Five
If someone asks the GM a question, do a five count before you jump in to answer. Give them a chance to respond, and if they look around for input, then go ahead and speak your mind. Even, if not especially, not rules questions.

Wasn't There Another Stone Giant There?
If the GM forgets something bad, don't remind them. On the one hand, they may have honestly forgotten, in which case they'll remember it later, do a face-palm, and pretend nothing happened. On the other hand, the GM may be deliberately ignoring it to move the scene forward or to keep from killing the party off.

Things I Think About Games (After Hindmarch and Tidball) Part One

October is back to once a day postings, with my plan to finish a couple of outstanding articles and mostly do reviews of smallish rpg products I like. To kick off this month, I start with a two-parter on gaming in general.

Things I Think About Games (After Hindmarch and Tidball) Part One

I picked up William Hindmarch and Jeff Tidball's Things We Think About Games recently. They write for one of my favorite gaming blogs gameplaywright.com It is a pretty quick and easy read at about 140 pages or so. Each page has a single idea about gaming-- board, role-play or what not. Since the ideas are brief, you're getting a good deal of white space for the $20 price tag. I'm still not sold about whether it merits that cost, but I did enjoy the book-- but maybe not $20 worth. There some obvious stuff, some stuff I disagree with, some stuff that hadn't occurred to me (like the point about keeping your fingernails clean since people will be seeing your hands constantly when you play a game), and some confirmatory ideas (never ask for takebacks even if you misheard or had a rule misexplained to you-- play as if you'll have another chance at the game later). There's a nice section on real world lessons learned from playing World of Warcraft, an intro from Wil Wheaton, and comments from Robin Laws (one of my favorite designers).

In any case, I decided to write up a list of things that I think about rpgs that weren't included in the book.

If You Don't Like to be Wrong, Maybe You Shouldn't be Playing an RPG.
These kinds of games are, by their nature about uncertainty. You don't, can't, have all of the information. Drama comes from surprise, mistakes, mystery and accidents. There's also the fact that you have other players reading the situation, often quite differently. The nature of the game means you can't always be right-- even in a game without dice.

If You Can't be Wrong, You Really Shouldn't be Playing an RPG.
And maybe you better see if you've got some deeper problems. Not that you could really acknowledge that, right?

If You're Going to Say No, You'd Better Have Another Option
There's a role-playing maxim that suggests the GM shouldn't say no. If you can't quite get to yes-- have the player make a roll. The basic idea is to affirm player choices and provide them with opportunities, even if you don't think those choices seem great or especially if you think they're game breakers. If something's a gamebreaker to you as a GM, then you've planned it wrong. On the other hand if a player asks to do something that doesn't make sense to me as a GM, I'll repeat back to them what they say they're doing, perhaps with some more context of the situation, in case I haven't described the situation as well as I should have.

But this also applies to situations as a player. If someone suggests a plan or option and you say no-- you'd better explain why. Few things can bring a game to a halt quicker than players who simply shut down other player's ideas. And “I don't want to” isn't really an option.

Want to Piss Me Off? Tell Me You Were Just Playing Your Character
I've said it many, many times before, but know where your character ends and your player begins. Being crappy to other players, NPCs or to the GM and then saying “I was just playing my character” is like saying: You Suck and then putting a :-) after it (or a “Wink!”). Bottom line- as has been said before- don't be a dick.

Feed a Bad Player and He'll Sh*t All Over Your Game.
Some bad play comes out of ignorance or unfamiliarity to the play or the group dynamic. That can be fixed- through example or through discussion with a player. But some bad play is just bad play and can't be fixed. If you throw most plots, NPCs, or other things you think they want, they'll still be bad players and you'll have alienated the others at the table. They'll get fat and bloated until something happens where they make that final release...or the game ends...or both. I've seen it too many times.

Some Characters are Easier to Write for than Others
Some PCs are easier to develop storylines for than others-- for that particular GM. A games strives for a kind of parity in terms of attention between players but in practical reality it never achieves that. As a GM, it isn't necessarily that I like one character better than another-- but some character fit better with what I'm doing, spark more stories or seem more sympathetic to me. I'm trying my best to keep that in rein, but it happens. If you're not getting the table time you want, talk to the GM about the kinds of stories you'd like and how that fits with your character. Don't demand X plot, but give the GM a better sense of things-- they may be lost when it comes to plotting for you.

Give Me an Excuse to Let You Win
As a GM, I want you to win most of the time. I want you to have small victories, but I also want there to be challenge and tension. When you're trying to do something, don't just say what you're doing, but how you're doing it and why you're character is able to (skills, equipment, past experiences, psychological shock). Give me a hook to hang the victory on-- something that makes you're investment in your character pay off.

Some Skills are Better Than Others
Most systems with skills generally have equal costs for most skills. However, not all skills are as useful as others- by this I mean things like Sailing or Pilot (Cart). That's a fact of the game.

I Want What I Paid For
On the other hand, if skills like Diplomacy or Combat Abilities aren't going to be useful in a game-- the GM better tell me that ahead of time. If I've built my character based on statements about what the game is going to be like and it isn't that, I'm going to be pissed.

Celebrate Victory
When a player wins, let them win. Give them proper credit for their victory. Never undercut it with “well, the opposition wasn't that tough...” or the like. As a GM it costs you nothing, and an inflated sense of self can be used later. Especially never undercut a PCs dramatic death or sacrifice. If they die holding a gate against the enemy, don't say afterwards “You know there was a special button you could have pushed to magically lock that...”. Don't do that. Really don't-- not even with an off-hand comment. Don't.

Epic Fail = Table Time
The best part of having awful things happen to your character is that you get a chance to play those moments out. Sure a GM will probably play out some good, happy times at the table-- but more often than not we'll be dealing with the tense and awful. If you keep your character safe and bottled up, then you're less interesting. There's a limit to how many times I'm going to try to draw you out with new characters or plot threads. Eventually I'll get tired of that and figure you just want to watch the game go by for other people. Take risks, even if you think they might not be in character fully, to give yourself a chance to be at the center of a scene.

Plays Well with Others
On the other hand, do go falling into everything just to have all the table time you can. That's annoying and diva-like. Learn to love the other PCs-- be as interested in their stories as your own. Make yourself the person they want to have with them when they go to do their scenes.

Metachronology of My Non-Shared World Campaigns

Still planning on skipping posting until the end of the month (trying to get my ducks in a row...with mixed success).

Anyway, I posted earlier about the various rpgs I ran in the shared game world, mostly fantasy. It occurred to me I ought to make a list of all of the other campaigns I've run outside of that. Here's what I remember (in something like reverse chronological order). Basically I'll count anything that I got several sessions with some continuity out of. I'm probably missing some.

Wayward: Changeling the Lost
Current campaign, using the Action Cards system.

Prometheus in Vegas: Scion
Short-run campaign lasting about a dozen sessions.

Crux: Dragonblooded
Exalted campaign, currently on hiatus

NOLA: Nightwatch
Mutants and Masterminds campaign set in post destruction New Orleans

Arkham Harbor: FWAP
Irregular Mutants and Masterminds campaign

HCI
Long-running multi-dimensional campaign using Rob's concepts

Bloodlines
Eight session Mutants and Masterminds campaign

Vampire
Year+ long campaign set after Gethenna

American Justice
Several sessions of a 1950's detective game ala James Ellroy

Saviors Reboot
Brief attempt to restart a Saviors street-level Champions campaign

City of Ocean
Homebrew weird modern campaign

Crowsmantle
Brief odd modern game with dimension hopping.

Ars Magica
A troupe-style campaign set in eastern Europe.

WoD: Hub City
World of Darkness mash-up game which ended with the supernatural apocalypse.

Call of Cthulhu
Ran a few sessions of an attempted on-going CoC game (both modern and 1920's IIRC).

Saviors: the Next Gen
Fairly long-running Cyberpunk/Champions mash up game set in the Saviors campaign world.

Frontline
Longish Champions campaign

Future Supers
A crash and burn attempt to do a Legion of Super Heroes-esque game.

Wild Cards
Several sessions of trying to do Wild Cards with Champions

Ninja Hero
Long before L5R came out, I tried to do a magical samurai/Asian fantasy game.

Saviors
A long-running Champions low-level game borrowing heavily from Watchmen and the like.

Champions Mash Up
Briefly run very strange over-the-top Champions game

Gurps Amber
The first GURPS game I tried to run-- just weird.

James Bond
Ran this back in HS and middle school.

AD&D
First game I really ran with Rob in it-- started the whole fantasy bandwagon for me.

Champions
Ran some on-going stuff in middle school.

Laws on the Iconic Hero

Maybe I'll just linkdump from other cool things instead of entirely skipping posting...no, but Robin Laws has a great piece today on the idea of the "Iconic Hero".

I think that's worth thinking about in terms of player conception. Some players come in and know that their characters will change, take a dramatic arc, in the course of the story. Some plan for that and for others- it comes as a surprise. Some players come in with a conception, an "iconic hero", in mind and nothing that happens will change their perceptions or persona.

Generally I prefer the former to the latter, as a player and as a GM. A single "iconic" PC can be good as a foil, but players who take that role are often destructive to the group or to the story...usually with the classic "I was just playing my character..." line (or with a *wink*).

kobold.

9/1/09

Post-bump post.
My mom's finally packed up from her apartment, seen off to the airport with my sister, and winging her way to Seattle. Will miss her- but not the stress of getting everything that's needed to be done over the last three months (medical and otherwise).

And of course found out Friday my Dad went in for emergency heart surgery last week. Talked to him Sunday and he seems tired but recovering.

I'd like nothing stress inducing to occur for the next couple of months please. What a weird, weird summer.

Blogging will be as blogging does.

Edit: Just a heads up--probably will be blogging infrequently for the month of September-- want to get some things written (a couple of articles, some novella drafts, some rpg stuff, and my board game rules) plus the ongoing job hunt. So I'll try to concentrate on that first.